the beginning:
David Walker, the former Comptroller of the United States from 1998 until 2008, has been warning politicians, the media, and the American public for over a decade that we are off course and headed for disaster. In August 2007, before the financial system meltdown of 2008, Mr. Walker declared:

The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon. There are striking similarities between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. The fiscal imbalance meant the US was on a path toward an explosion of debt. With the looming retirement of baby boomers, spiraling healthcare costs, plummeting savings rates and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks. Current US policy on education, energy, the environment, immigration and Iraq also was on an unsustainable path. Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernize everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems.

Three years have passed since Mr. Walker sounded the alarm and issued his dire warning. The National Debt in August 2007 was $8.9 trillion. Today it stands at $13.6 trillion, a 53% increase in just over 3 years. It took 205 years as a country to accumulate $4.7 trillion of debt. We’ve added $4.7 trillion in the last 38 months. It doesn’t appear that anyone in government heeded Mr. Walker’s warnings

Be sure to read the rest.Definitely an eye opener........

TheOtherChris

October 18, 2010, 14:06

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
I am the Great and Powerful... and so on.

Until some mutt pulls back the curtain, the majority of Americans will continue to believe that it can't happen here; that it will get better because it always has.

When it finally becomes obvious to anyone with an IQ above 85, the politicians and news media will say "Now one could have seen this coming."

Eric Bryant

October 18, 2010, 16:31

Jokker told me everything was going to be OK - we're just going to return to a 1950s or '60s standard of living. I've watched Nick at Nite and have caught a few episodes of that "Mad Men" show, and I can report back that things are going to be OK. I'll be pimpin' in a sweet Cadillac and dressing a whole lot better than I currently am. Should be a pretty good time.

On a more serious note, we're f*cked.

motosapien

October 18, 2010, 16:51

A few years back I started a book on the fall of Rome. Got about 40 pages in and was so creeped out I quit reading it. I guess the politicians and those who bribe them are having such a very good time they just can't stop.